I just spent the last three weeks exploring Brazil.  They will host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 and the country is in the midst of a massive transition as it prepares for the millions of visitors it expects over the next five years.

We started our trip in the lively city of Rio and then headed north to Salvador, the center of Afro-Brazilian culture.  After a week on the island of Boipeba, we finished our trip in Sao Paulo.  It was an incredible experience on many levels–the people, culture, music, food and general way of life gave me perspective and left me enthused and inspired to explore more.  I’m excited to share some of the highlights with you in the coming weeks.

I.T. Beijing Market, a 19,000-square-foot emporium blending various Comme des Garçons lines with other designer brands, opened just a week ago in the Sanlitun retail development in Beijing. In a rare interview with WWD, Rei Kawakubo, discusses the opening of her new Dover Street Market retail space.  The interview is brief but insightful and details some of the issues both she and the brand have faced.

WWD: What do you think of the way people dress here and their style?

R.K.: When I came here 10 years ago there were no people who would wear Comme des Garçons. I was just in the towns and didn’t go to the places where fashionable people gathered, but now it is much more casual. I used to enjoy seeing people wearing communist workers’ clothes and I don’t see that anymore.

WWD: How has the inspiration for your collections changed over the course of your career?

R.K.: Do you think it’s changed? For me it hasn’t changed at all. The way I approach each collection is exactly the same…the motivation has always been to create something new, something that didn’t exist before. The more experience I have and the more clothes I make, the more difficult it becomes to make something new. Once I’ve made something, I don’t want to do it again, so the breadth of possibility is becoming smaller.

WWD: Everyone is talking about how the Japanese market for retail and luxury goods is just terrible right now. Do you think that will change? Do you think there is a way to get consumers excited again?

R.K.: Now, with fast fashion, the value of creation is diminishing, and very expensive things are not interesting.

WWD: Is there any way out of that situation?

R.K.: I always think that I’d like to do something about the situation…it’s a very profound motivation…but I don’t think it’s something that can really be changed. I’m not powerful enough. There’s a closed-mindedness that prevents movement and change. I always think that I’d like to break that, and I’ve used it [this closed-mindedness] as a theme for collections, but I just can’t seem to break it. I want to wake people up, but I don’t think I succeed in doing this as much as I would like to.

WWD: You mentioned fast fashion. That’s been a huge story and obviously you had your collaboration with H&M. Would you consider doing something like that again?

R.K.: That was a special case. They were making a new store in Japan, so it was just a short, two-week relationship. It wasn’t a big thing, but I thought it was interesting because they asked me to do all the advertising and visuals as well. H&M has a very different way of thinking and a different business model, so it was interesting to see how much of a connection we could make. But in the end I realized that there wasn’t very much in common, so I don’t think I’ll do it again.

WWD: Would you consider selling it or listing it on the stock market?

R.K.: I don’t think there’s anyone who would want to buy it. I do everything on my own, so there are very few people who could do it. Do you think there’s anyone who would buy it? [Joffe interjected half-jokingly with a laugh: “We’re waiting for an offer.”]

WWD: How do you come up with a retail concept? Where do you start?

R.K.: Firstly, I want to make a shop that’s unlike any that already exists. And then, since it’s a business, we have to be able to get back the initial investment, whether it’s ours or whether it’s the partner’s, in as short a time as possible. So I don’t like to use expensive materials. I take care to make costs reasonable. It’s very similar to the way I make clothes. I give myself limits, not only financial limits but I also limit my method of expression, and from within those limits I try to come up with something new and interesting.

WWD: Are there any young designers coming up through the ranks you’re keeping your eye on?

R.K.: There are very few. There are few people who, like us, have the values and the way of thinking to really try hard. They lack discipline. And it’s not just fashion, I think…[young people] get satisfied too easily. They’re not strict enough with themselves. They’re too soft on themselves.

photos via Hypebeast and Racked

interview via Robert Cordero and WWD

In case you missed this fantastic article published in the NYTimes this weekend.

The 110 Things New Yorkers Talked About in 2010

By STUART EMMRICH

It was a year in which the daughter of one president was married in a largely private ceremony on a gorgeous summer day and one in which the daughter of a possible future president went on a prime-time dance show to give “a big middle finger to all the people out there that hate my mom and hate me.

It was a year in which one political candidate threatened to punch out a member of the news media, another resigned from office because of “tickling” sessions with male staff members and a third coined the political rallying cry of the year: “The rent is too damn high.”

It was a year in which Gwyneth Paltrow went on “Glee” and all but erased the memories of the smug, unbearable scold she had evolved into in recent years, while Taylor Swift put Kanye West in his place, broke the heart of poor Taylor Lautner and, with her new romance with Jake Gyllenhaal, proved she was no kid anymore.

It was a year in which New Yorkers talked about these 110 things.

1. Bedbugs.

2. Pee-wee Herman’s comeback.

3. Larry King’s farewell.

4. The best campaign slogan of 2010: “I am not a witch.”

5. Ricky Martin comes out.

6. Steven Slater wigs out.

7. Four Loko, R.I.P.

8. Justin Bieber gets a new haircut.

9. There is no justice: Mondo loses to Gretchen on “Project Runway.”

10. Well, maybe there is: Bristol Palin finally is ousted on “Dancing With the Stars.”

11. The Sally Draper plotline on “Mad Men.”

12. Gwyneth Paltrow’s sudden charm offensive.

13. Caroline Giuliani, the daughter of Rudolph W. Giuliani, is arrested on shoplifting charges.

14. Anthony D. Marshall, the son of Brooke Astor, is convicted of stealing from and defrauding his mother.

15. Debrahlee Lorenzana’s allegation that she was fired from Citibank for being “too sexy.”

16. In September, Marty Peretz, editor in chief of The New Republic, writes on his blog that he wonders whether Muslims are “worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment.”

17. In December, Franklin Foer, editor of The New Republic, announces he is quitting.

18. Willow Smith, the daughter of Will Smith, and her “Whip My Hair” video.

19. Jerry Seinfeld’s hilariously cranky “Why am I here?” appearance on Andy Cohen’s talk show.

20. Kanye’s Twitter posts.

21. The rebirth of Don Hill’s.

22. James Franco and Kalup Linzy perform at Webster Hall.

23. James Franco.

24. The Robert Rauschenberg retrospective at the Gagosian Gallery.

25. Chelsea Clinton marries a nice Jewish boy.

26. Julian Assange.

27. Steve Martin, in promoting his new novel set in the art world, talks about art. The audience is not amused.

28. Natalie and Benjamin.

29. Taylor and Jake.

30. The new Norman Foster-designed Sperone Westwater gallery on the Bowery.

31. Nail salons that serve alcohol.

32. Those damn vuvuzelas.

33. The iPad.

34. That Fran Lebowitz documentary on HBO.

35. Tina Brown.

36. Tina Fey.

37. Rex Ryan on his reported foot fetish: “It’s a personal matter.”

38. The kids — Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson — in “The Kids Are All Right.”

39. Patti Smith wins the National Book Award for “Just Kids.”

40. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, unlikely YouTube sensation.

41. Wills and Kate are engaged.

42. Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens break up.

43. As do Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson.

44. The party of the year: Alexander Wang’s carnival-themed bash held in a parking lot under the High Line during New York Fashion Week.

45. Kellan Lutz’s Calvin Klein underwear ads.

46. The Dow’s 1,000-point plunge in May.

47. Sarah Palin and Kate Gosselin go camping. It does not go well.

48. Mark Madoff’s suicide.

49. The eerily predictive Madoff suicide plotline on “Damages.”

50. Columbia Business School has to remind its first-year students to brush their teeth and use deodorant before a job interview.

51. Charlie Sheen enters “pre-hab,” and a term is coined.

52. Charlie Sheen trashes a hotel room. Back to plain old rehab?

53. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is repealed.

54. Jimmy Carter says he thinks the country is ready for a gay president.

55. Oh, the irony: Gawker is hacked.

56. Anna Wintour’s girl crush on Blake Lively.

57. In his author video to promote “Freedom,” Jonathan Franzen complains about author videos.

58. Page Six’s Richard Johnson leaves for Los Angeles.

59. So does Jeffrey Deitch.

60. Dina Lohan thinks her daughter Lindsay should move to New York.

61. “Defriend” and “BFF” enter the Oxford American Dictionary.

62. Sandra Bullock’s Oscar.

63. Sandra Bullock’s divorce.

64. The sheer awfulness of “The A-List.”

65. Marc Jacobs starts his September runway show at the Armory exactly on time, leaving stranded outside in the rain hundreds of people who had gotten too used to “Marc time.”

66. Marc Jacobs’s ex-boyfriend on “The A-List.”

67. The valedictorian of this year’s graduating class at Columbia University plagiarized part of his speech from a YouTube video posted by the comedian Patton Oswalt.

68. Conan O’Brien returns to late-night TV. No one notices.

69. Bernadette Peters in “A Little Night Music.”

70. The increasingly scary body count in “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

71. Elizabeth Edwards.

72. Tipper and Al’s divorce.

73. Amar’e Stoudemire, man about town.

74. George Steinbrenner dies and still is not elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

75. Five Columbia University students are arrested on charges of selling an array of drugs at several fraternity houses and other campus residences.

76. Gary Shteyngart’s “Super Sad True Love Story.”

77. The murder at Soho House.

78. Brad Goreski leaves the Rachel Zoe nest.

79. Marina Abramovic.

80. Carl Paladino’s campaign for governor: The gift that kept on giving.

81. New York Fashion Week’s move to Lincoln Center.

82. Mika and Joe.

83. Justin Timberlake in “The Social Network.”

84. The “Ring” malfunction at the Met.

85. Roger Stone in “Client 9.”

86. A writer for Marie Claire sets off a Web firestorm when she blogs she was “grossed out” by the overweight characters on “Mike & Molly.”

87. Cathie Black.

88. That ghost stroller in Park Slope.

89. Gregg Allman returns to the Beacon Theater.

90. John Boehner’s tears.

91. Kim Kardashian flaunts her assets in W.

92. A Columbia University professor is accused of having a consensual incestuous affair with his 24-year-old daughter. Columbia is having quite the year.

93. Anderson Cooper finally gets to meet NeNe Leakes. He seems the more star-struck of the two.

94. The KFC Double Down sandwich.

95. Lady Gaga’s meat dress.

96. Derek Jeter stays with the Yankees.

97. Cliff Lee goes to the Phillies.

98. In “A Piece of Work,” Joan Rivers reminds us how funny she still is.

99. That “rent is too damn high” guy.

100. The never-ending downtown mosque controversy.

101. Naomi Campbell testifies in the “blood diamonds” trial of Charles Taylor.

102. Lanvin comes to Madison Avenue.

103. Barneys Co-Op goes to Brooklyn.

104. The new divorce site on Huffington Post.

105. Eric Massa’s Navy years suggest a whole new meaning to the term “snorkeling.”

106. The Brett Favre “sexting” controversy.

107. Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker. Train wreck.

108. Courtney Love.

109. “I would like my life back.”

110. End of an era: Elaine Kaufman dies.